lukebuehler.com About the life of a pilgrim

Back to Field One: Switzerland

Exploring Istanbul was exciting, but after a little over a week of only rain I started thinking how my journey should continue. The days got shorter and the temperatures kept dropping so I was unsure how the pilgrimage should continue in the winter.

I heard that my girlfriend was in Switzerland and that my mom was planing to go to the mountains for a week or more and since I found a cheap flight ticket home I decided to just do a surprise visit. On the 18th of December I flew home. It was quite weired to fly home, all the distance that I made in four month just melted down to three hours. There was some melancholy because I had to say good bye already to this new life of being on the road. At the same time I was looking forward to meet Chrystal and to see my family.

As I arrived in Zürich late at night no one knew that I was coming. I took the train to Zürich main train station and then went to a friend and knocked on his door, he was quite surprised to see me but it was no problem to let me surf his couch for the night. Early in the morning I walked back to Erlenbach where my journey started. It was quite a special time I walked through the woods and slowly everything became familiar. I was a little nervous though how my family would react and most of all Chrystal. We had some great troubles in our relationship and didn't talk for over six weeks. My mom invited her to celebrate Christmas with my family even though I wouldn't be there. I approached the house as it was still early in the morning and just walk in. No one was around except my moms cleaning lady she was quite surprised too to see me but let me in. I snook up to the room where Chrystal was sleeping and you can imagine she was quiet surprised to see me. She hid under the blanket. Also my whole family was cheerful to have me back alive.

After two days in Zürich we went to the mountains of Flims to celebrate Christmas up there. I loved to spend time with Chrystal and get some things straight that we struggled with. It was hard for her that I went on this trip and I can understand, we had a long distance relationship for over three years and me hiking alone didn't make it much easier. After our time in the mountains she had to go back to university in Vancouver, we parted cheerfully knowing that more good things are to come. Since then I was mostly at home studying, following up some of the spiritual discoveries I've made along my way.

Many people ask if I will continue the pilgrimage but I don't know yet. I've learned to take the decisions day by day not looking ahead too far. I might go to Canada for a while until summer starts and then continue from Istanbul to Jerusalem, but honestly, I don't know. Currently I spend a lot of time studying, praying and meditating. Besides that I work a little as a software developer to refill my wallet.

More about what I'm learning here in the next post. The pilgrimage continues and it is less about making it to the real Jerusalem than to find the inner one.

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